The Long-Run Benefits of Treadmill Desks

An administrative assistant at Brown & Brown Insurance in Carmel, Ind. works at a treadmill desk.

Trendy treadmill desks might actually help improve job performance – after employees get used to working while walking, according to new research.

A yearlong study of finance workers at a company in St. Paul, Minn. found that the productivity of 40 treadmill users dropped at first as they struggled to master typing and manipulating a mouse while walking at speeds of up to two miles per hour.

But within four to six months, all three measures of performance—quality and quantity of work, and quality of interactions with colleagues—rose steadily, according to weekly surveys of participants.

At the end of the survey period, workers with treadmill desks rated their overall performance 0.69 points higher than before the project began, on a 1-to-10 scale. Performance ratings given by their supervisors, who filled out weekly surveys rating both treadmill users and non-users, rose for walkers by a full point by the end of the year.

For tasks like solving problems or taking conference calls, “a little bit of walking is useful because it means there’s more blood flow to the brain,” said Avner Ben-Ner, a professor at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management and an author of the study, which was published last month in the online journal PLOS ONE. “You get more oxygen and it increases the ability to think.”

Treadmill desks have gotten attention amid research findings about the negative effects of sedentary lifestyles and jobs that leave workers sitting all day. But data on the effectiveness of the desks has been relatively scant. Two recent studies have shown that treadmill walking reduced a person’s accuracy in fine-motor tasks such as typing and mouse-clicking.

There are other downsides, too, as The Wall Street Journal wrote last year, including the possibility of falls and injuries and, according to some online complaints, painful shocks from the machines’ build-up of static.

Mr. Ben-Ner noted that treadmill users need some time to adjust to the ergonomics of walking while working, including the proper monitor and keyboard height. His team provided no training to study participants, and he said that employers who provide such desk should offer help to get users set up and comfortable on the machines.

“This wouldn’t be very good for people who thread a needle for their jobs,” he said. “But everyone who does brain work knows that if you’re stumped or need fresh ideas, take a walk.”

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